Monday, March 31, 2014

Are your ARC's stacking up? Have published dates come and gone? Are you feeling like you need to get those piles under control? Are you avoiding NetGalley and Edelweiss? If you answered yes to any of these questions then I invite you to join me and my co-host - Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Review (thanks for letting me host with you!) to make a Clean Sweep of those ARCS in the May month long Clean Sweep ARC Challenge. To help motivate you we will be giving one lucky participant a new 2014 release of their choice. You can earn entry points for each ARC you read and by joining in the fun. See rules below, link up, grab the button and get ready to clean up those ARCS!!! If you would like to host a challenge, please email us.

Clean Sweep ARC Challenge May 1 through May 31

Rules

Link-up and add button to your blog

Arc must be read between May 1st and May 31st, 2014

Challenge starts and ends at midnight in your local time zone

All ARCS/finished copies that were provided by publisher/author are eligible. They can be in any format (eBook, physical, audio)

Post start up post with goals.(can be posted during event)

Tweet using hashtag #CleanSweepARC

You do not have to post review on blog during the month of May. Just provide a link to Goodreads showing read May 1 to 31st with a two sentence review.

Twitter Party Wednesday May 14th 7pm (EST) #CleanSweepARC

Participate in challenges

The Participant Giveaway will include entries for each linked book read, posting about challenge, start up/results post (can be combined), having button on your sidebar, participation in Twitter party, entering challenges and for following hosts.

Grand Prize- One winner will receive a new release of their choice (can be audible credit, novel or gift card) valued at up to 20.00 US dollars. Open internationally.

Challenge Schedule and entry form will post on May 1st and participant giveaway will close on June 3 at 11:59 (CST)

Sounds like fun right? So come on grab the button, link up and get ready to make a clean sweep. Kimba and I will be here to cheer you on and motivate you!

Sunday, March 30, 2014

I really enjoyed the graphic novel series Watchmen by Alan Moore. Really amazing story, plus the movie was excellent. So when I heard there was going to be a Before Watchmen series I was very excited. I couldn't wait for it to be released in volumes so I could get it from my library. I know that it is written by different authors and Alan Moore did not sign off on the project.

Let's start off talking about Comedian/Rorschach. Unfortunately I never really liked the Comedian... so his back story was only mediocre to me. It was all about the Vietnam War and his friendship with the Kennedy's. I am not sure though if this gives me more insight into the Comedian that I didn't get in Moore's comic. I found the Comedian's story bouncing around too. Rorschach's story was a little better. Here we see him try to fight crime and we do see why he becomes who he is. I wish his story had been a little longer. For me this one is a pass. 2 out of 5

Next up I read the volume with Minutemen/ Silk Spectre. In Minutemen we go all the way back to well before Watchmen. We see the original crew. We get to see Night Owl's (the original) tell all book and the fact that what he thought was the truth actually isn't. The Silk Spectre plot shows her as a teenagers running away from her superhero mom. The whole end of this comic though is everyone high and in San Fransisco. Yes the art was neat and I enjoyed that but then again the story fell flat for me. I do like to hear her thinking about her first impressions of the Watchmen when she is first invited to the club. 2 out of 5

The next volume I pushed through was Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair. I had to push through this one. I love the artwork by Jae Lee. I have loved his artwork since he did work on the Dark Tower comics. I actually did enjoy seeing Ozymandias become who he is. How he ends up being so rich and so obsessed with Dr. Manhattan. But still these comics fall flat for me. I like to see where his pet cat comes from and so on. But Crimson Corsair?? Who is this guy?? I don't even remember him. He is some type of sailor .. and let's be honest, this part of the comic was a DNF for me. I just couldn't bring myself to waste anymore time. But since Jae Lee has such good art I'll post some of it! 2 out of 5 for the Ozymandias story.

Next up and the final issue is Night Owl/Dr. Manhattan. This was really the only decent comic out of ALL of these. The Night Owl story was interesting and gave me more insight into the Watchmen world. He is pared up with Rorschach and really we learn how they work as a team. Dr. Manhattan was an interesting read. We see him trying to figure out why he became who he became. We see him go into different timelines and try to change what happened to himself. Dr. Manhattan's story has always bothered me. I feel bad for him. I wish for him to have a normal life but he will never. 3 out of 5 stars

In the end overall I think this is a boring series. It took me a week to get through it and that is a long time for me. I didn't even want to finish the series out but I did. I found the series really weak and disjointed. Nothing compares to the original Watchmen series by Alan Moore. Perhaps it should've been just left alone. I recommend skipping this entire series and just loving the first Watchman.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Let's chat about what's going on this week... on my blog.. on other
blogs... on the internet... and just everywhere!
I link up my post to Sunday Post and Stacking the Shelves.

Announcement:
I am going to be co-hosting my first readathon this May!! I will be co-hosting with Kimba from the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge. ARC's for challenge can be any books you have received from publisher, author etc. Even if they are already released. We need a few Challenge hosts for the event... would you be willing to host one? You do need to have a giveaway with it but it can be as little as a $5 bookish gift. If you would be willing to help out please let me or Kimba know. Even if you haven't hosted a challenge before you and I could be new at things together. Spreading the word about Challenge hosts would be a big help too!! The main post will go up on the 1st of April.

Internet:
I love this Arnold skit! I mean if you don't love Arnold then I just don't know what to tell you. Plus Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show has been really really fun. You should also check out the video of Kevin Bacon dancing his Footlose dance on the show. Kevin Bacon doesn't age. Well .. now to Arnold!

Books Books Books:
This week was another slow week at the library which is fabulous! I about about to start Cinder by Marissa Meyer for my book club's read in April. Looking forward to finally reading that series. What about you?? What's happening in your world?

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Honestly... I didn't really plan on playing this game. I don't watch South Park faithfully but still enjoy it. I have actually been to the town of South Park and have even taken a picture with the sign in the town! Then I was looking at trailers for video games and there was a 15 minute preview of the game play for Stick of Truth and I was sold!

I knew it was totally my type of game play. My friend bought it on PC and said the game is about 10 hours of game time so I of course ran over to Redbox and rented it. Let me tell you though, if you have never seen South Park, and have no idea how offensive it can be this game is probably not for you. I am going to talk about BAD things in this review. I am not usually raunchy on this blog but the things I am going to talk about are gross and not for kids. It is shocking.. some so shocking I was glad I was playing the game with my husband so he could take over on the gross parts. So if you don't want to read about nasty, politically incorrect stuff then stop reading!

I enjoyed this game. It is super fun and funny. At the same time I was offended and shocked. I stopped watching South Park years ago, though I still watch the occasional episode (like the recent Game of Thrones episodes). I don't think you have to be a watcher of the show to enjoy the game.

Cartman killing with farts

This game plays like an RPG which is why I liked it so much. The fighting style is like Final Fantasy, you even get special moves. I like that you can run around South Park and do different side quests. The main quest though pokes fun at the whole fantasy genre. But then of course you have the typical South Park humor including some crazy alien butt probing. Also a few sex scenes, lots of swearing, and a few other crazy scenes. I don't want to give away too much so if you are dying to know more about what happens in the game google it.

This game is not for everyone. While I did enjoy it, sometimes it was WAY too much for me. Dang South Park!! If you can get past some of the more offensive scenes and you love RPG then this game is for you. The end of the game did get kind of long. I felt some parts were just drug out, including the last boss fight scene. I give this game a 7 out of 10!